


[insert james bond reference here]

by anonymouseling



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: (but a lil bit bc of max's situation w billy and mr hargrove), (mostly bc of the lab stuff w eleven), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Typical Violence, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow To Update, Steve Harrington Has Powers, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, Steve Harrington-centric, chapter one covers season 1 & 2, i only wrote this bc people kept choosing the wrong number, knock out the t and boom you've got yourself a number, like c'mon his name is presumably steven, my take on the steve is also from the labs au, that way i can also throw in a james bond joke somewhere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2019-10-11 03:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17439146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymouseling/pseuds/anonymouseling
Summary: He hid in plain sight. Seven escaped from Hawkins Lab in the summer of '79, and the Harringtons moved to Hawkins that same summer. It was a good place to hide, after all, no one expected him to hide just a few miles away from where he escaped.OR the Steve is from the Lab AU that I couldn't stop thinking about.





	1. 001

**Author's Note:**

> i know this probably doesn't make much sense how steve could have a normal life in hawkins but like.....people sort of make out the government to be perfect, really efficient and don't let anything fall through the cracks when in reality a lot of criminals and other people of interest can hide out in america. like forty years ago i bet they would have been even worse, so it's probably not too much of a leap to think that a 13 year old steve could hide in hawkins. i mean i was originally gonna make it so that steve could change his appearance but eh i didn't really want to waste his powers on that??? so he can't and when he's older he just relies on puberty to do its job lol anyways, hope you enjoy lets get on w it.

“You’re free.” The Nice Man said to him.

“I’ve set you up nearby. It’s— It’s too dangerous for you all to hide together. You’ll need to be on your own if this will work.” He explained.

“Your name will be Steve Harrington. Your parents work for a big corporation so they’re away a lot, and they don’t go out a lot when they are in.” He continued.

“Now, I’ll...contact you when I can, if anything happens you know how to contact me in an emergency. I’ve set something up with someone in town, for when you need someone in person or need help explaining some things. His cover is a family friend, you got that?” He asked.

“Your brothers and sisters are going to be safe. I...I’m sorry I can’t do more.” He apologised.

“Stay safe.” He hugged him.

Maybe Seven— Steve. Maybe Steve should have felt more worried. About how he was going to try and blend into society so that he wouldn’t get found out and dragged back to the lab. He barely knew the first thing about being normal only that people talked differently to how him and his siblings did.

Was it because they talked more often or because Seven and his siblings were brought up differently? It was hard to figure it out on his own. But he couldn’t rely on the Nice Man for everything. The Nice Man still had to find a safe place for the rest of his siblings, the ones that got out.

Steve missed the ones that didn't. The ones who are already dead because of things that happened in that lab, or the ones who died trying to escape. The only good thing that he could think of was that they didn’t have any kids left. They were probably going to have to take more.

He wished he could help them. Because he knew that no kid should ever have to suffer from that kind of pain. But...Steve was just that - a kid. Though he had powers, he knew he didn’t have the power to stop them. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been kept there for as long as he did.

So now Steve was left alone in a big empty house with only a bare minimum of an introduction plan and the promise of a helpful man he could call if ever he was _seriously_ confused.

But Steve was determined. He was going to get this. He was going to fit in. Sure, he was away from all comforts of familiarity, but when that familiarity was also pointy needles and being forced to use his powers way beyond his limits...maybe unfamiliarity was good.

 

* * *

 

He adjusted quickly.

Sure he felt weird and there were a few people who looked at him funny because he didn’t talk or act like everyone else. But his teachers were understanding. His cover story of being homeschooled until he moved to a new town worked well. People assumed he hadn’t interacted with many people before, which was somewhat true although he had to mostly study in the library nearly twenty-four seven just to understand the basic stuff everyone else learned in elementary. Constantly playing catch up, whilst pretending he wasn’t.

He wasn’t all that good at making friends. But that was probably for the best considering he still wasn’t quite fitting in. He still had the few odd quirks that he needed to straighten out before he was ready for that level of permanent contact.

On the upside, Steve hadn’t used his powers a single time since the escape. It was nice being without the permanent headaches and nosebleeds that came with overusing them. There was the comfort that should anything seriously bad happened, he always had them to use as a fall back, but otherwise it was nice. No one knew about them either, so if he ever forgot about them...then he would be just like everyone else.

 

* * *

 

Two years after his escape and a year into high school, he was approached by Tommy H and Carol. Steve knew he was pretty well adjusted to his new life. Sure, there were still things he didn’t know and his grades were barely passable considering his lack of education, but he was pretty sure that it was weird they’d suddenly approach the quiet kid with no friends.

“You live on Loch Nora, right?” Tommy H asked, his smile wide and friendly although there was something unnerving about it. Steve couldn’t quite decide on what it was that unnerved him, so he kept his guard up.

“Yeah...it’s not a secret?” He was still pretty awkward with conversation, but Steve was pretty sure this wasn’t normal. There wasn’t really any hints as to why Tommy H would ask that, or why specifically they’d ask Steve. He was apprehensive but this interaction didn’t flag any kind of danger warnings that would suggest the lab.

“I heard that your parents are away a lot...that must be lonely.” Carol interjected with a voice that...vaguely resembled sympathy but not really. By now he was cluing into the fact that Tommy H and Carol wanted something from him, what it was - he had no idea. Either he could give them it so they wouldn’t bother him or refuse it and potentially kick up a fuss thus drawing attention to him.

“A little…” He admitted. Sure it was lonely and on a lot of days he missed his siblings like nothing else, but he knew they were safe. Wherever they were, they were safe. The Nice Man made sure of it, he’d told Steve so once he’d gotten them all to safe places. He didn’t know the details, only that they were safe.

“Do you want to hang out sometime?” Carol asked. “Maybe you should throw a party? They’re a great way to liven up an empty house, plus it’d be fun!”

Steve thought about all the things he’d heard about parties thrown during high school. Most of them were hosted by seniors and juniors there was the rare sophomore party but a party hosted by a freshman was either a lame kiddie birthday party or an awesome alcohol filled party.

Just give them what they want or kick up a fuss.

So he took the easier option - give them what they want.

“Oh! You think so? Um. Y-yeah. I’ll, uh, I’ll do that. I don’t...really know who to invite though.” Steve stammered, half-playing up his natural urge to do so. If he left the inviting part to them, then all he had to do was supply a few things and let the others run rampant in his house. Barely any effort on his part.

“Oh, just leave that to us Harrington.” Tommy H playfully clapped him on the shoulder. “You just supply the food and some drinks, yeah?”

“Y-Yeah, for sure. Thanks.” Steve awkwardly smiled at them.

The party that was held on the Saturday was okay. Steve had bought ten bags of chips and five bags of pretzels. He’d even bought a dozen or so bottles of soft drinks that immediately got spiked by Tommy H when Steve turned his back before the guests arrived.

Steve wasn’t really surprised to see people from every year of the high school there. He wasn’t even surprised when a senior brought a keg and people started to do keg stands. He hadn’t ever tried alcohol before, and was only really standing to the side drinking from the only soft drink that he knew wasn’t spiked when Tommy H challenged him to do a keg stand.

Again, he came to the conclusion he had two options - go with it or kick up a fuss.

So he chose the first.

When he had to fall down because he literally could not drink anymore there was a round of cheers. “King Steve everyone!” He vaguely heard Tommy H cry over the cheers.

The next day, Steve was popular.

 

* * *

 

Fourth year of freedom and third year of high school, Steve thought Nancy Wheeler was the most amazing person on earth.

She had a way of making him feel completely normal. Like some dumb rich kid in a small town with absent parents. Who’s biggest worry was their parents coming home early to find a teenage house party in full swing and destroyed furniture. The boy that had been normal all his life, and never knew what it was like to be an outcast or different.

The popularity had been like that to a lesser extent when it first happened. It seemed a lot easier for Steve to adjust when he was around other people a lot, people came up to him to talk and due to his reputation he could walk up to someone and talk to them without it being weird. He knew what was right and wrong in societies rules by following Carol and Tommy H’s example.

When he was with Nancy, chasing after her and flirting with her, he felt normal. And it wasn’t just that she was a girl that he was chasing, no, he genuinely loved her as a person. All the things that made her Nancy.

Her laugh, her dedication to her studies, the way she looked at him - unsure and shy but smitten as much as he was. It was intoxicating being near her, getting to know her more and their small inside jokes. The way she said Steve Harrington made it feel natural, like it wasn’t just a cover name. It was his real name that he was born with. A reminder and a smile.

 

* * *

 

Steve only clues into the fact that something went wrong in the Hawkins Lab embarrassingly late. As in he’s walking up to the Byers’ house and Nancy opens the door with a bandaged hand. Even then, it wasn’t until he came face to face with a monster that wasn’t _normal,_ that he realised he probably should have tried to monitor the lab in some way for extra security. Or at the very least, paid attention to the town outside of his own distractions. The whole drama of Nancy and Jonathan. If he paid more attention he wouldn’t be swimming in the deep end completely unprepared with zero information.

He helps his ex-girlfriend (did they break up? He thinks they did. They never really talked about it.) and her new boyfriend (did Steve read things wrong? They acted like there’s something between them romantically. He didn’t think he did, but he’s not sure.) fight off a monster from hell with a nail filled bat and forces himself not to use his powers. He couldn’t reveal himself. He couldn’t. Not in front of people he couldn’t possibly rely on to keep it a secret. Maybe Nancy would but he knows that ever since he got into a fight with Jonathan, the chances of relying on him to keep it a secret went from unlikely to impossible.

When they manage to weaken the monster and it gets away, Steve knew that whatever happened was over. The monster wasn’t coming back, but considering Nancy and Jonathan had a whole plan of attack like they knew it was coming he’s entitled to some answers.

So he sits down on the Byers’ couch in a wrecked living room as they tell him the story that makes his blood run cold.

A little girl with powers escapes from Hawkins Lab known only as Eleven. The lab made her open a gate to another world, and the monster is what came out of it. The monster took Will and Barb and all the other people that were missing in the area. The people from the Labs were looking for her, and they’re hiding her from them.

Steve just walked neck deep into something that puts him directly into the eyesight of the lab and the people who kept him. This is the most danger he’s ever experienced since getting out. And isn’t he the luckiest bitch?

He’s been saving his funds for a while, the automatic payments from the Nice Man that had been money his “parents” gave him to live off. It was going to be his college fund, so he could move far away from Hawkins. It wouldn’t be weird or off the radar for him to move away. A lot of teenagers do.

He’d be able to live his life, for real. He’d go to college, get a job, start a family. He’d be far _far_ away from the lab. Although he’s been free for the last four years, the lab has loomed over him as an intimidating presence. Close enough that he can’t live freely, but far enough away that he was somewhat safe.

But he knew he couldn’t escape now. There wasn’t a way he could get out without looking suspicious and draw even more attention from the lab to him. Nancy and Jonathan would tell the government he was involved and that would be the end of that. He knew that they’d never let him walk away without some kind of action, they didn’t do that sort of thing. Too many liabilities. They’d be silenced one way or another.

Steve could only thank puberty as he directly spoke to a few people he had seen when he was just Seven. He’s managed to grow enough that he was hard to recognise thankfully, and if this all happened a year ago they’d be fairly suspicious. Maybe he should grow a beard to further hide.

They make him sign form after form, so many that even if he wanted to even breathe a word about Hawkins Lab, he’d be taken out within seconds. He’s not even sure any of these could stick considering he legally doesn’t exist as all of his papers are 100% faked. But Steve isn’t planning on telling anyone anyway. Their secret is his too. They were experimenting on superpowered kids, and he was a superpowered kid.

He knows that as he’s walking away, the government would be doing a full background check. Looking into every detail of Steve Harrington’s life, and he can only pray to whatever higher power is out there that everything the Nice Man set up comes back clean and normal to them. He can’t stand the idea of going back - not when he’s had such a long taste of freedom.

He doesn’t ask Nancy about any more details. He knows it’s probably the rational thing, the normal thing, that when something abnormal happens they question every little thing. But he doesn’t want to talk about it. He doesn’t want to draw attention to it. All he knows about the rest of the night is that Will was found and brought back, Barb is dead and Eleven - the girl they took after he was gone - is gone now. Whether she’s dead or disappeared, she’s out of the government’s hands.

He mourns the fact that she was made to suffer. That he couldn’t do anything to stop them, that he hadn’t even _known_ she’d escaped so he could help her. It might have been the fastest way to draw attention to him from the lab, but Steve still feels the weight of his dead siblings on his shoulders some days. If he could have helped her, it would have felt like he was helping them in a way.

Nancy takes him back, and he celebrates his first normal Christmas with her family. He apologises to Jonathan and gives him a new camera to replace his old one. Three fifths of the Wheelers don’t know what happened, and Nancy is trying to act normal. It’s nice and completely normal. It made it easier to act like Steve Harrington, even though whenever he looked at Mike he felt like Seven.

 

* * *

 

Fifth year of freedom, last year of high school. People are pressuring him to go to college, he’s not sure he’ll even get until community college with his _barely_ passing grades. He’d never truly caught up, so most of the time he was behind the rest of his peers. It’d be a miracle if he graduated on time.

Maybe he should stick it in Hawkins for a while longer. It’s been nearly a year since the incident and he’s not being targeted by the lab for capture again so he must not have appeared suspicious to them.

Even though with every day that passes, Steve considers traveling out of state to get his tattoo removed permanently. He’s no longer as confident in the layers of makeup he uses, he wears long sleeves in the summer. He doesn’t go swimming.

(He had the pool filled in a month after the incident. He couldn’t stop looking at it and thinking about how Barb had been taken right there whilst he was only inside. He should have been able to hear her struggle. But he didn’t.)

In the end he decides not to risk it. He’s on the lab’s radar already, doing something that suspicious would be sure to raise some flags which would be the complete opposite of his goal.

He goes to Barb’s parents house every week for dinner with Nancy. It’s always depressing and seeing the whole slew of photos of the dead girl always makes his gut squirm. She’s dead and they’re never going to know because the government wants it that way. They can’t even bury her body because it’s still there in the Upside Down, too dangerous to retrieve it.

Barb’s parents selling their house uselessly to fund the search for their daughter that’s never going to be found almost kills Steve with guilt. So many different kinds of guilt but he knows not only for his safety, but Nancy’s and everyone in on the secret’s safety he has to ignore. He can’t tell them. He can’t tell them they’re wasting their time because he’ll only hurt them and they won’t believe, not without evidence.

Maybe it was selfish, but if he told Barb’s parents it was a one way ticket to either be killed or taken back to the lab. He has to stay quiet and obedient.

He’s decided to continue doing nothing until Nancy desperately says to him that they need to tell them. That she can’t take it anymore. She’s asking for his help with it. God he can’t do that. He absolutely cannot do that.

He tries to convince her not to. Tells her what he tells himself, to keep her head down and just go to the dumb party and be normal teenagers. He’s about sure that he succeeded until he finds Nancy drinking spiked punch like she’s been walking the desert and it’s the first water fountain she sees. He leads her to the bathroom to clean up and she breaks through his carefully constructed mask of normal teenager.

“You’re bullshit.”

She tells him she doesn’t love him, and that she think he’s bullshit. She calls him out on his act and if the fact that she doesn’t love him back doesn’t rip out his chest, then the fact she recognised his mask sucks away all his breath.

Yeah, unless she was a mind reader - which he’s 100% sure she isn’t because that was Five’s thing and she died during the escape - she must have been talking about how he acted cooler than he was. Which was still close enough to the truth that it had him _terrified._ That someone could read him whilst drunk and still get a fairly accurate read on him.

It was so close that Steve had pulled down his rolled up sleeves and had to get _out._ Realistically, he should have pushed past his discomfort to take her home because it was way too dangerous to just leave her there drunk off her ass whilst he was the one who drove them both there. But he couldn’t. He didn’t feel like Steve Harrington, Nancy Wheeler’s boyfriend, he just felt like Seven from Hawkins Lab.

He spotted Jonathan and pushed past him, barely pushing out “go help her” before leaving the house. That was good, he’d look after her. He’d make sure she got home okay. And hell, if Steve and Nancy weren’t a thing anymore then maybe they’d get their shit together. He wasn’t an idiot, he recognised the chemistry between them. He’d been foolish to think that she loved him more than Jonathan to ignore it.

 

* * *

 

Basketball is a good way to get his mind of things. He’s not crazy about the sport, honestly he just enjoys the exercise aspect of it more than anything. Steve had only chosen to join the team because he needed something to keep him out of that big lonely house, and being on the team helped maintain his popularity when he played pretty well.

But Billy Hargrove is a dick. For some reason he set his sights on taking Steve down, probably because of Steve’s ex-title of King Steve. Ever since he ditched Tommy H and Carol last year, he’s not been too popular. The fame had always been hand in hand with those two, plus now that he never held parties at his house anymore - not after the last one - it was hard to really maintain his king status.

So the fact that Steve hasn’t been King Steve for under a year, it’s almost pointless for Billy to target Steve because of it. But unfortunately, Hawkins High hasn’t had another major figure to replace him, so beating a dead king is probably the easiest way to prove Billy as his replacement. Not that he really needed it if the girls’ gossip is to go by.

He’s pulled out of his respective basketball ass-whooping by Nancy. Evidently she doesn’t remember their conversation which is all kinds of painful, but he fills her in and asks her again if she loves him. He doesn’t get his hopes up that she’s more truthful when she’s sober. Steve knows Nancy well enough to know that she doesn’t. He just can’t believe it took him this long to realise that she _doesn’t_ love him, even when she tells him the opposite.

So he leaves her and goes back to basketball practise.

It takes him a day to fold and try to win her back. Maybe it was unhealthy, to beg and be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t love him, but god she helped Steve feel completely normal. Not like Seven at all. Hell he’d...he’d even sort of considered _telling_ her. About Seven, and all the shit that came with it.

Of course he’d immediately shut the idea down but there was the very slim possibility that he’d tell her compared to the absolute zero chances that everyone else would get. So in the end he still kept his tattoo concealed with makeup and didn’t consider ever using his powers around her. Not that he would. He hadn’t used them ever since his escape and some days he can completely forget about them.

 

* * *

 

He’s walking up the Wheeler’s house when that Henderson kid intercepts him and throws the bouquet out of his hands telling him that Nancy isn’t home. He only vaguely knows Dustin from the times he’s been at the Wheelers whilst Mike’s friends were over, otherwise he’s pretty sure that he’d never even know his name.

“You still have that bat?” Dustin asks, already opening his car door. Steve hasn’t even agreed to anything but he’s already got major concerns. The bat usually means Lab Shit has gone down again. And although he’s pretty sure he’s flying under their radar he’s not anxious to dive right back into their shit again.

“Bat? What bat?” He asks, trying to play it off even though he makes sure that the bat is tucked away in his car trunk at all times even though it’s highly illegal. He’d much rather be caught with an illegal weapon than using his highly secret powers.

“The one with the nails?”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain it on the way.” Yeah, no. That just means that the story is long enough with little time to explain it. Which most definitely means Hawkins Lab Shit. Fuck. Why did there have to be kids involved, if it were fellow teenagers - even though Steve’s aware that the kids are thirteen they’re still babies compared to his eighteen years - Steve would have no problem tell them to fuck off unless it’s Nancy asking. But she’s AWOL so, guess he’s on babysitting duty.

By the time that he’s at the Henderson house he’s accepted his fate. He’s back in this crap again, he wonders if it’s better that he’s there at what presumably seems to be the beginning of the action or if it’s worse. Because he’s not actually sure if the whole gang will be getting involved again, but he half wonders when they will.

Maybe the reason no one is around - according to Dustin because Steve only ever interacts with Nancy - is because they’re all doing their own part in the whole thing and Steve’s just joining in the middle of it. From what Nancy said there were a whole lot of moving parts to last year’s shit.

Either way, when Dustin sends him on his own into the basement that has a creature from presumably the Upside Down alone, Steve despite himself thinks: ‘Maybe I could use my powers to help this time.’

After all, he’s alone and out of sight. Who knows how strong or powerful this thing will be, especially if it’s anything like the Demogorgon from last year that took so many bullet’s from Nancy’s gun, the bear trap and the fire and still lived. If Steve used his powers, then no one would know.

But then the basement is empty, he finds a disgusting pile of shedded skin and a tunnel and there’s no need for it.

Steve sighs, knows that this won’t be the end of it because there’s a rapidly growing creature that at it’s last size ate a cat. It won’t take long for it to grow to a size where humans were realistically on that list. But it’s night and so he sends the kid to bed, and when Dustin asks if he’ll help look for Dart in the morning he sighs and says yes. In for a penny, in for a pound and all that horseshit.

 

* * *

 

He goes by the local butcher at the asscrack of dawn (which during November is only 8am anyway) and gets a few weird looks when he asks for two buckets of diced beef. He picks up a canister of gasoline at the gas station and picks up Dustin.

Giving girl advice to Dustin during the middle of all this crap helps bring Steve back to himself. Back to Steve Harrington. So even though he’s only barely knowledgeable about what he’s talking about, and it should be completely awkward, he’s more than grateful for the topic. His advice probably sucks ass, but he tries his best. So A for Effort, Harrington.

Plus even after warning the kid not to fall in love and effectively upsetting him, he gives him hair advice that genuinely seems to cheer the kid up. So even more points in his favor. He’s not sure who’s tallying them, or who he’s up against, but still he’s got a fair few points.

Steve is both surprised and unsurprised when there’s a girl he has never met next to Lucas when he walks up to the Junkyard. He doesn’t think it’s Eleven, but considering she looks entirely relaxed as if she’s not aware of the danger, he’s pretty sure she’s just a random kid that Lucas brought with him.

They’re setting up for the ambush when Lucas and Dustin disappear to bitch or talk or whatever, and the only one helping him is the random girl. He’s not even sure anyone even told him her name, so he’s more than a little cranky when he spots their hiding place and tells them to get a move on.

They manage to set the junkyard up by the time the sun starts to set. The bus is decked out well and is decently protected, the only weak spot would be the top entrance but it’s more advantageous to use it as a lookout than board it up. Besides it also worked as a backdoor if ever they couldn’t go out their only other exit.

There’s fog rolling through the junkyard when Dart shows up and doesn’t take the bait, and isn’t that his luck? He’s babysitting three kids, and if shit starts to go down he’s gonna have to be the front line of defence. Before Steve knows it, he’s grabbing his nailed bat and preparing himself to go out there. He throws Dustin his lighter and goes out into the open.

There won’t be a fall back of using his powers this time. Kids are notoriously bad at keeping secrets and if Lucas telling Random Girl about last year is any indicator, the moment he reveals himself to them is also the moment the rest of the group find out. His only choices is to use them when he’s alone or not at all.

Turns out there’s more than one lizard dog and he’s surrounded. He manages to get back on the armored bus and is beating on one of them that got trapped in the door when he hears the sound of something walking on the metal roof. The realisation that they’re trapped in here makes his blood run cold. He can’t even sprint to close the hatch because he knows there isn’t one and he’s still beating the one stuck in the door, he’ll never get there in time.

The second that Random Girl starts screaming though, he’s sprinting to the kids and holding out his bat. He knows that this time he’ll use his powers. He needs to protect these kids, whether it’s because he’s got some strong paternal instincts or to make up for the kids that he couldn’t protect from the Lab, Steve isn’t sure. And he’s not sure whether it’s a good thing or not that the Demogorgon like dog screeches at him but then turns and leaves.

Probably a good thing.

It means he didn’t have to reveal himself, but he doesn’t get the feeling that it’s over. They were called off somewhere and the amount of them could probably take out a whole lot of people. Especially if they were now eating humans.

 

* * *

 

They’re trying to track Dart when Dustin and Lucas decide to have a bitch fit at each other with Random Girl being brought into it too. Realistically, they should probably leave the drama for when there’s not a serious catastrophe on their hands, but as with the conversation from earlier, it brings Steve back to himself.

He cuts the bitching when Steve hears the noise and starts to follow it. Random Girl is keeping her head above everything and questioning why they’re following it, and if this wasn’t just ‘same shit as always’ he’d probably be doing the same.

“It’s the Lab.” Lucas says after looking through his binoculars. That single sentence makes Seven rear his head, but thankfully Steve keeps his shit together. “They were going back home.”

Steve pushes past the fact that every single cell in his body is protesting the agreement to check out the Lab and go with the kids. He needs to protect these shitheads, even though there is the entirely irrational fear that if he stepped foot in there and someone saw him they’d instantly put two and two together. His sleeves are rolled down but he subtly checks if his tattoo is still hidden and is glad to see it is.

They meet Nancy and Jonathan at the gate to the Lab, and Steve distracts himself from the view of the Lab to try and help pin down where Will and Mike are with when he last saw the two. He’s stood facing away from it but the fear is almost paralyzing, the place that haunted his nightmares and has loomed over him like a shadow threatening to take him back. It’s almost suffocating being this close to it, but now the rest of the shitheads’ friends are in there and he can’t leave without a valid excuse which he has none.

The power comes back on and they can’t get the gate to work. Dustin keeps jamming the open button, but it takes an extra minute for the gate to finally open. Even then, he’s slow to move. Now that it’s open, he’s leaning against the security point glad that he’s stuck with babysitting duty and not going into the Labs.

Because all he can think of is pouring into the back of a van that tore away from that hell hole, sobbing as he can’t stop thinking about how Ten got shot in head right in front of him during the escape. He remembers how Ten could move metallic objects towards himself and probably redirected the bullet that was meant for Steve but wasn’t able to move in time to save himself.

He’s glad for the distraction, but looking at the kids who were about the same age as he was when he escaped isn’t helping all that much pull him out of memory lane. They’re all too serious to start squabbling too, which doesn’t help. When he hears the screeching of tires and the sound of engines, Steve’s so glad to be back in motion and back to the present that he moves fast.

Although he and the kids pile into Hopper’s truck that too close to his previous escape vehicle for comfort, he’s not entirely sure that he’ll be able to snap completely out of his memories until they’re far away from the Lab.

 

* * *

 

They go to the Byers’ house which is once again decked out in weird shit. He wonders if the next time shit goes down the house will be transformed again, but then he realises that they’d have to be another catastrophe for that to happen and Steve is not looking forwards to finding that answer out.

He understands that pretty much everyone in the Labs is Demogorgon food though which makes Steve too delighted for words if he’s being honest. Like, sure, wishing murder on people is bad and maybe some of the people there were innocent, but he’s happy to hear of their deaths anyway.

These kids are far more intelligent than they probably should be, but they start to figure out that something needs to be done about the Big Bad of the year. They call him the Mind Flayer which even though Steve is so far removed from Nerd culture he knows it’s from Dungeons and Dragons. It’s not until that moment that he realises that him and the adults have been using the terms that these kids supply them with: Upside Down, Demogorgon, Mind Flayer. It’s impressive and a little bit cute, honestly.

Steve helps with dressing up the Byers’ shed into something unrecognisable to interrogate Will. He’s still pretty impressed that their plan is stuff that the kids thought up, but it’s not like Mrs Byers or Hopper have any better ideas - besides Hopper’s failed plan for military backup. That’s when Nancy tries to talk to him.

He’s honestly been dreading talking to her since he saw her and Jonathan at the Labs. Steve’s pretty sure that she and him at a thing now, considering she presumably skipped town with him for two days and their entire dynamic is obviously different. But instead of bringing up anything in the past, she thanks him for looking after the kids. He wasn’t really expecting anyone to thank him, it’s not why he did it, but he’s grateful anyways.

Will starts communicating with morse code, they find out they have to shut the gate and then the phone starts ringing. If it’s Hopper’s military backup then that goes down the drain when Nancy rips the phone out of the wall in an attempt for the Mind Flayer not to hear it. Steve tries to calm his worries by reasoning that it could be anywhere but he thinks that Will probably knows the ring of his phone by heart.

But then they hear the Demo-dogs roar and he knows that it’s too late. They’re coming and it’s going to be a fight to get out of it. He readies his bat to attack while Hopper throws a rifle to Nancy. There’s an unnerving minute or so as different roars sound around the house before one of the dogs is thrown through the window dead.

The door gets unlocked and there’s a thirteen year old girl with a light nosebleed staring at them. By the reactions of the others, Steve’s chest locks up as he realises: holy shit. _This_ is Eleven. This...this is the girl that he failed.

Mike gets angry that Hopper was hiding Eleven. And even though he’d only _heard_ of Eleven briefly through Nancy, he’s sort of angry too. He’d thought she was dead, but when he stops to think about it he starts to think of Hopper as Eleven’s Nice Man. So even though he’s sort of angry, he manages to quash the feeling down. He’s been doing a lot of that since shit has started to go down again, he’ll have a lot of shit to unbox later but that’s a problem for future Steve to deal with.

When Hopper takes Mike away to talk, Steve tries to make it look like he’s not observing Eleven make her rounds through the people in the room. He’s glad that she has so many people that care about her, it eases his guilt ever so slightly knowing that if he helped get her out earlier she might never have met these people. But it’s only a tiny degree that eases, the rest of him is still burning with guilt.

They figure out the plan to stop everything, Hopper and Eleven is going to close the gate, the Byers’ are gonna get rid of the Mind Flayer and Steve’s back on babysitting duty. He tries to keep his gaze away from Eleven, but it’s hard to do while she’s right there. He has no idea the next time that he’s going to see her again, hopefully soon now that Hopper hiding her is common knowledge in the group.

Then Dustin convinces Steve to put the Demo-dog Eleven killed in Mrs Byers’ fridge. It’s disgusting but he figures he’ll just let Dustin take all the blame. Mike get irritated that they’re just sitting around with nothing to do and complains. And like every single time these kids talk about shit, they figure out a new plan. This time they want to go alone into the Demo-dog infested tunnels and create a distraction, luring the dogs to them. Which is such a suicide mission that even though Steve knows it’s a moot point, he tries to play the adult card and talk them out of it.

He don’t even manage to make them agree to stay put when Billy Fucking Hargrove arrives. Max - he finally got her name when she introduced herself to Eleven halle-fucking-lujah - says that he’ll kill them if Billy finds her here. He tells the kids to keep their heads down as he goes and tries to talk the guy into leaving. It’s unlikely but Billy isn’t involved in this shit. Steve can threaten to call the cops and maybe the bluff will be enough.

Except Billy a hundred percent knows that she’s there. Steve doesn’t know how until he sees Max and the kids with their faces to the window watching, and _goddamn_ he’s going to have to make sure these shits listen to him in the future because it’s irritating how much they don’t.

Billy punches him, kicks him in the ribs enough to wind him and heads past him into the house.

He has to take a moment to wheeze in a few breaths before he gets up and makes sure that Billy doesn’t hurt the kids and when he does get in there, he sees him with his hands on Lucas slamming him into the corner shelves and yelling at him.

He ducks Billy’s first punch and gets in a few licks of his own but then a plate being smashed over his head dazes him enough that he’s able to be pinned to the ground. Billy keeps punching and punching, and somewhere in the back of his head the small box that he pushed his powers into keeps rattling to get out. But he’s in too much pain to really do anything, and the next moment he’s unconscious.

 

* * *

 

It’s terrifying to wake up and see a thirteen year old at the wheel of a car _driving._ Like almost too terrifying for words and if the world wasn’t spinning, he’d insist they pull over and he take over. Instead he isn’t too concussed to stop yelling for them to pull over because he did _not_ agree to their stupid suicide mission, and this was incredibly dangerous.

He makes a mental note that if they survive this, he’s going to teach Max how to _actually_ drive until she’s a decent driver.

When they arrive, the kids make it clear that they’re going to do this one way or another and Dustin gives him his bag with his nail bat in it. It’s kind of cute how it’s packed like they were going on a field trip with school, if it weren’t a field trip into a highly dangerous environment and might get themselves all killed. He needs to keep these kids safe, so he finally gives up and heads into the tunnels with the kids.

He leads them to where they plan to torch the place and he nearly has a heart attack when Dustin starts screaming murder but it turns out to not be a big deal. They reach the place and start dousing it with gasoline, some that was left over from the junkyard and some that they snatched from the Byers’ place. He makes a note to buy a replacement for them.

When they’ve emptied all their gas canisters, he stands on the edge of the tunnel they have to take back to the car with the kids. He readies his lighter and his already sighing as he knows he’ll be abandoning it. There’s no way he’ll be able to retrieve it, he doesn’t have any real attachment to it, it’s just nice to have. Annoying to replace though.

He throws the lighter and the place is up in flames almost instantaneously, the vines writhe and screech and he yells at the kids to run. The way the vines are reacting, he knows that it won’t be long before the dogs are on them. They need to be _out_ of the tunnels before that happens. But then Mike falls, and they encounter Dart.

Steve has a moment where he figures he’s going to have to whip out his powers and like every time he’s thought that, it turns out he doesn’t have to. Dustin resolves the situation by giving the Demo-dog nougat of all things. Steve makes another mental note to make sure Dustin understands not to bring home abominations from another dimension again.

They find the hole up and Steve helps the kids get out, lifting each of them in turn until there’s only Dustin and himself left. He pushes the kid behind him and raises his bat ready to protect him with his life, but then the dogs are running past them. They’re not even the slightest bit interested in attacking them, but Steve holds onto Dustin just in case they change their mind.

When there’s no dogs left in the tunnel, he lifts Dustin out. Thankfully the kids reach up and give him a hand out of the tunnels, and then the headlights on Billy’s car get impossibly bright. For a glorious moment, everything is calm. It’s the same feeling he had when the Demogorgon disappeared from the Byers’ house last year. That his part is over and if the others are still going, it’ll be over soon.

Steve takes a breath, assesses his condition and figures that to get the kids back it’d be a lot safer if he drove.

“Alright speak up, anyone injured?” Steve asks as he steps forwards, and opens Billy’s trunk to dump his backpack in there. He holds his hands out for the kid’s stuff but there’s not much left to put in apart from the rags and goggles they’re wearing.

There’s a chorus of the kids all saying they’re fine, so at least there’s that. He doesn’t even know if what they did made a difference, but he feels like he’s been run over by a truck and he’s pretty sure that his nose is broken and he’s got a concussion. Still, he can see straight enough to drive and that’s good enough for him. Besides it’s 2am and Hawkins’ traffic is usually quiet but by this time of night it’d be nonexistent.

“Alright, I’m driving. Get in.” Steve opens the door and the kids all get in with a mixture of speeds, for some of them it’s evident that the adrenaline is fading and the rest they’re still keyed up with it. Thankfully for Steve, he’s still got it and will do until he can collapse somewhere. Probably on the Byers’ couch.

As Dustin gets into the passenger seat, Steve goes to put his foot on the accelerator when to his amusement he finds a brick that Max had to use. He bends down and passes it back to her with a smirk, which gets him an embarrassed scoff and a “Shut up!” even though he didn’t say anything.

It’s not the smoothest that Steve’s driven but it’s a _hell_ of a lot better than their previous road trip and just looking at the hood of the car, Steve is eternally thankful they decided to take Billy’s car and not his. The rational part of his brain is hoping that they can get back before Billy wakes up and realise that they stole his car for a joyride and brought it back damaged.

When they get back, they’re there before anyone else. He grabs his bat just in case Billy is awake and raring to go for round two. Except he’s still passed out. Steve isn’t _entirely_ sure what they’re going to do with him, but he figures that Hopper or Mrs Byers’ would have a clue. So he gets the kids to help drag him to the center of the room and tie him up with some of the stuff they used with Will.

 

* * *

 

Everyone gets back at the same time, and though the kids were on the edge of sleep, they instantly wake up when they hear the cars pulling up. They all head out to excitedly greet them all and asking how it went. If Steve wasn’t aching from his beat down and unsure about leaving Billy alone, then he’d join them.

Mrs Byers and the others are understandable confused by Billy’s presence and concerned by Steve’s beaten state. He must look like utter shit because Nancy steps away from Jonathan’s side to inspect his injuries with a worried expression. Hopper looks at Billy with some apprehension but waits for clarification before doing anything.

“What the hell happened?” She asks. “And why do you have...rainbow bandaids on?”

“Shit, do I really?” Steve winces, yeah he’s definitely going to kill the brats because of that.

“What happened to you kids? Who is this tied up in my living room? Are you alright, Steve?” Mrs Byers asks exhaustedly as she clutches a dozing Will to her chest.

“That’s my brother.” Max explains. “He came here looking for me, Steve tried to get him to go away but he saw me and forced his way in. Billy was threatening Lucas when Steve stepped in and they fought. Billy was beating the shit out of Steve, so I used the sedative we used on Will. That was about an hour ago, we didn’t want to take any chances that he wanted to fight more when he woke up, so we tied him up and thought you’d know what to do?”

Hopper ducks out for a moment and comes back with a pair of handcuffs that he must have gotten from his truck and cuffs Billy. “Yeah, I’m comfortable just arresting him. Assault, breaking and entering, anything else he did illegal?” He raises an eyebrow the room.

Steve is kind of surprised that there seems to be actual consequences to Billy’s actions due to the fact he and Jonathan tussled last year and got off with just a warning on both sides. Maybe it’s because it was a harsher beat down this time, it definitely felt like it was.

“Woah, really?” Max asks, obviously shocked at the turn of events as well. “You’re _actually_ going to arrest him?”

Mrs Byers bites her lip. “He _is_ just a kid...Probably okay to just do him for assault.”

Hopper holds his hands out. “Okay fair enough. I’ll radio for someone to come collect him. Either way, he’ll be spending the night in jail.” He then turned to point at Steve. “And you need to get checked out at the Hospital.”

Steve winces but doesn’t really complain. He’s been seeing double for a while now and had been fighting the urge to puke since everyone arrived. He wasn’t an expert but he knew that head injuries should be checked out to make sure he wouldn’t slip into a coma and die probably.

Details from then on a bit blurry to Steve. He’s helped to Hopper’s truck by Hopper and Jonathan, Eleven trailing behind. At some point Hopper decides that if he’s making a detour to the hospital he might as well bring Billy into the station himself since it’s close to the hospital and safer in case he wakes up.

Billy’s stop comes first, and Steve blearily watches as Billy wakes up to Hopper leading him into the station. There’s some sort of satisfaction seeing Billy getting arrested but he also feels like there’s more to the story. Maybe he’ll ask Max about it.

Steve and Eleven are sat in the truck for about ten minutes in silence. He kind of wants to put the radio on because he’s never been a fan of silence, but it’s silence with Eleven and she’s sleeping. So he decides he’s not going to wake her up and just endure it.

The hospital is the second stop, and apparently despite how small Hawkins is, there’s actually a wait time. Steve tries to fill in his fake details as much as he can remember, but it’s hard to bluff his way through this concussed to hell. He’s pretty sure he messes up a few things but if anyone asks, he’ll blame the concussion. By the time he’s finished, they’re being called up.

They set his broken nose, brace his sprained wrist - which he didn’t even realise he _had_ through all the general shittiness he felt - stitch up a particularly deep cut on his forehead - and he sees the rainbow bandaids the kids applied oh he forgot about those - and give him a variety of meds and prescription for more.

They ask him for contact details of his parents but he says he doesn’t have the number for the hotel they’re staying at with him. They’re not happy but they let Hopper sign him out but ask to make sure that someone wakes him up every couple hours for the next twelve, and someone to watch over him for the next forty-eight until he’s in the clear. He winces as the only one that _can_ do that is Hopper who really needs his rest. Hopper sighs and tells the doctor he’ll do it.

When they get back to the truck, Eleven is still asleep on the backseat. He’s somewhat surprised that Hopper was okay leaving her for an hour in the car alone but he realises he threw a blanket over most of her body and parked in a dark spot making it impossible to notice her without a flashlight.

“Okay then, back to my place.” Hopper sighs as he starts the truck up.

“Sorry.” Steve mumbles, starting to feel sleepy but fighting it off. He doesn’t want to make any more trouble for Hopper by making him carry him to the house or whatever.

Hopper sighs again. “Don’t worry about it, kid. Not your fault your parents are out of town.” He pauses for a second. “They’re out of town a lot aren’t they?”

Steve is way too concussed to be dealing with questions about his made up parents, but he can’t really see a way out of it either, so he tries his best at keeping with the cover story.

“Yeah, dad’s a big dude in this company. Mom stays with him to keep him in line, I guess.”

Hopper frowns, but doesn’t say anything more. He has a thoughtful look on his face that makes Steve uneasy but he’s mostly concentrating on staying awake than trying to worry about whatever Hopper’s piecing together. They sit in silence for what’s got to be twenty minutes before they pull up to a wooded area. Hopper gets out and picks Eleven up, she stirs briefly but nuzzles into Hopper’s warmth immediately and falls back to sleep.

“Alright, just a five minute walk and we’ll be there. You want the couch or my bed?”

“Couch.” Steve immediately replies. As much as his aching body is begging for the comforts of an actual bed, he knows he’s not going to take it. Hopper’s exhausted and still has to wake him up every two hours, when he didn’t really sign up for caring for him. Not to mention it’d be weird to sleep in someone else’s room, he only hopes the couch is somewhat decent to sleep on.

Steve opens the doors for Hopper. He notes the boarded up windows in place of glass and decides not to question it. He wonders if they’ll get replaced soon considering it was November and it would get stupidly cold pretty soon. When Hopper finishes tucking Eleven in, he throws a thick looking duvet Steve’s way which he manages to catch just in time.

“Get some sleep, I’ll wake you up.” Hopper says gruffly as he starts to make his way over to another door.

“Hopper,” Steve says before said man closes his door. “Thanks for all this.”

Hopper gives him a weak smile and a roll of his eyes, in a gesture that says ‘don’t mention it’. “Go to sleep Harrington.”

Steve’s barely ever fallen asleep with people around him before, the only times being with Nancy and he can’t help but feel relaxed just to be in the same building as other people. He’s out like a light the moment he lays down with the duvet covering him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first i should probably state that i might not update this reliably and might even drop it. i binged the series again, binged a bunch of fanfics and just like usual, i felt the need to write a stranger things fic myself. but the thing about me is that i have the _worst_ endurance for writing projects, so i sort of stop writing even if i love them. i was going to just let this rot in my drafts until i had more than one chapter written but i figured that i worked too hard on it to do that. 
> 
> anyways!! man am i v surprised at myself??? because i wrote this whole 9.2k word chapter in like....two days?? which is a record for me??? usually when i write something in two days its like....1k words...maybe 3k....so this is a surprise lmao. idk how long the rest of the chapters are gonna be, like i considered just splitting this one up into three but i thought it might be best to just keep all the canon events together. sorry if it's boring to read or i didn't add too many differences? honestly this was a really different experience for me because i usually write in the past tense so writing current tense was odd but it felt weirder to write it in past tense...idk. 
> 
> things you can expect for this fic going forwards?? um, realistic injuries aka steve's definite concussion, steve & el bonding, babysitter steve, _maybe_ a lil hopper/joyce bc im weak for them being a thing, and i'll actually reveal what i decided should be steve's powers. probably some government stuff too because i do _not_ trust sam owens no matter how nice of a guy he seems. stranger things has conditioned me to be distrustful of any and all of their government staff.....
> 
> let me know what you thought and all that junk! feedback really helps with inspiration and i get more likely to write and you guys are more likely to have a chapter somewhat soon! everyone benefits!


	2. 002

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey!! been a while, huh? sorry about that, i did warn y'all that i'm a bit of an inconsistent writer. i figured that i'd probably get back into writing for this when my next stranger things phase came up and i did tinker with it then a few months back, but it wasn't until i finally got round to watching season 3 did i _really_ get back into it. not gonna lie, still not sure how i feel about season three. depending on how i wrap up this fic, i might do a sequel focusing on season 3 but for now i'm just focused on finishing this fic.(and no spoilers here in case you're not caught up)
> 
> speaking of how this fic'll go!! i think i've finally nailed down a rough plot and how at least the next few episodes will go. there's two ways that i could take this and that really all depends on whether i'm going to cover season 3 or not. because if i don't, then i'll go with what i've got right now and it'll wrap up after about six or seven chapters. but if i do decide that i'll cover season 3 then this will probably only be four or five chapters and i'll actually do a sequel where i cover an alternate version of season 3. i'll put a poll down in the bottom notes actually to help me decide but right now i'm leaning more towards the alternate season 3 for a number of reasons. 
> 
> oh yeah! also someone commented last chapter that this was one of the first fics that they've seen where billy actually gets arrested for his actions, which i think is actually bullshit that it's not more common. like, what billy did was 100% illegal. he forcibly entered private property, tried to commit a hate crime by beating up lucas bc of racism, then actually assaulted steve enough to give him a concussion. and that's all fucking canon folks. i hate that he can play the "i was abused" card and everyone's like aw baby it's okay!!!
> 
> that's not to say that i don't feel bad that he was abused and i don't find him redeemable. because after all, he is just a kid, but he did break actual laws and that shouldn't be ignored. he also should stay the _hell_ away from max, because holy fuck is sibling abuse so harmful. and neil is absolute garbage, that i will at the very least have max's mom divorce, if not have neil arrested for child abuse. i'll decide about that later but let me know your thoughts. 
> 
> but anyways!!! on w the chapter!!! shorter one because this is basically just filler, the next chapter should be a lot longer when i have a better idea the direction we're going in.

The night passed, Hopper did his duty as an alarm clock and woke Steve up every other hour just like he promised the hospital that he would, each time it would jar Steve pleasantly. 

The only times that he’d ever been woken up by someone else outside of the lab was that one time he’d fallen asleep at school and got caught by the teacher, and the other was when he and Nancy slept together. This situation wasn’t like either of them, but he could safely say that he loved being woken up by other people.

Even if that person was a grumpy Hopper who really deserved to get proper rest. 

When Hopper came back to wake him for the third time, Steve decided that he could stay awake for a while and let Hopper get some undisturbed rest and told him as much. Hopper didn’t protest much, probably too tired to really argue and instead decided to head back to bed. 

For a while, Steve sat up thinking about how things were going to change from now on. After all, the lab had been effectively destroyed and so many people killed. He wasn’t naive enough to think that the government would just cut their losses and move on from the experiment, they’d already started tests back up once after a major break out. And then again when Eleven got out. 

Eventually, the government was going to go back to Hawkins lab and repurpose or relocate it. 

But...if the lab  _ did _ get shut down, what would that mean for Steve? What would that mean for Eleven? Their existences wouldn’t suddenly be ignored, because the government knew that there was at least four or five children left alive all with their powers intact. He knew that people in the government were just greedy power hungry people. They wouldn’t ever let go of the idea of having him and his siblings under their control. 

Steve had always known that living free for over ten years was probably a pipe dream, but with all this bullshit lately it was looking like his days of freedom were numbered even more than before. He knew that the closer he was to Eleven, the more likely it was that Seven would be discovered. But now that he’d spent even a fraction of time with her, he didn’t want to leave. 

She was the little sister that Steve had never had. The sister, who’d never met her other siblings, nor even knew she had them outside of the fact they came before her in order. 

There was only one thing that was good in all of the time spent in the lab, and to Steve that was the fact that he had siblings. People who shared in his pain, people who were confined to circumstances out of their control, people who uniquely understood the precise pain in your heart. 

Maybe it was selfish of him, wanting to stay and experience that closeness once again. Maybe he should have fought harder against the Nice Man when he decided that splitting up him and his siblings was the safest course of action, then left him with no way to find them again. 

But it had been five years since he last saw his siblings, and it was enough to tear his heart to shreds, if he was being selfish by wanting to stay close to Eleven then he was pretty damn sure that he deserved it after all this time. 

There was only one problem, and that was that Eleven didn’t know that Steve was actually Seven. 

He couldn’t just spring it on her like “hey I know we just met but Hi, I’m Seven and was trapped in the same lab as you for years, and I think my escape triggered your capture and I’m sorry. Want to be my little sister?” 

No that would be an idiotic idea. Even though Steve knew she deserved to know, he wasn’t going to do it that way. 

He’d...have to play the slow game. Get to know her and spend time with her, gain her trust and finally admit it. Apologise on his hands and knees if he had to, and beg for her forgiveness for throwing her into the situation. 

It felt sneaky and wrong to play it that way, but he only had one chance at trying to explain it to her and he needed to do it right. He already knew that she was a badass, possibly even more powerful than any of him or his other siblings, he really didn’t want to piss her off and invoke that wrath on himself. 

Steve was jolted from his ruminating by the sound of a door slowly opening, he turned to look at the curious gaze of Eleven. Her eyes still smudged with dark eyeshadow though less than last nights, possibly rubbed off on her bedding. Gone was her slicked back hair, persistent curls stuck out though slightly weighted down by the lingering gel. 

“Hey,” Steve offered with a smile then and wince as the smile tugged at his still healing scabs. 

“Hey,” She echoed, slowly approaching. “You protected Lucas.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, and your other friends. You’re Eleven right? It’s nice to finally meet you.” 

Eleven didn’t respond for a moment but she stopped before him and smiled so genuinely that Steve felt the need to cry just a little. “Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome. If you ever need anything, let me know. I’ll do my best to help in any way that I can.” He smiled, unsure about how he was offering it to her. But the offer was genuine and he hoped that he could get that point across. He really would do anything for her if she needed it. 

She looked at him a little wide eyed before her smile widened slightly. “Okay.” 

“Great.” Steve replied, sitting up slightly and wincing as it jars his bruised ribs. “How about I make us some breakfast. You hungry, kid?” 

“Eggos?” She blinked at him. 

“Hm, we’ll see. I know Hopper’s probably not a good cook, but I’ll see what I can whip up. Why don’t you get cleaned up in the shower in the meantime? Probably not all that comfortable with that gunk in your hair or on your face.”

Eleven screwed her nose up slightly in agreement, as Steve stood up and headed to the kitchen. He was a little wobbly and unbalanced, but not too much to actually hinder him. He managed to head into the kitchen and study what little the Chief had in their fridge. Thankfully, they had the ingredients for him to make it taste awesome. 

It didn’t take long to gather the ingredients and equipment he needed to get to work. Though it was slightly painful to have to do things with a sprained wrist or one handed, he powered through because if he wasn’t going to try and give Eleven the best breakfast he could then he might as well be damned to hell. 

Ten minutes passed and Eleven returned. Her curly hair was damp from the shower, and without the dark eyeshadow Steve could really see how young she was. Her attire was vastly different to before, something a lot more wholesome, they looked like hand-me-downs. It was cute, suited her. A small sharp twinge of jealousy shot through him. He’d always wanted to own some hand-me-downs, it was a marker of family. 

She watched as he finished up breakfast, making enough for Hopper as well if he woke up in time. Steve set the plate of french toast, scrambled eggs and bacon in front of them both before reaching for the syrup. 

Eleven observed him slightly, she seemed familiar with the bacon and eggs, but the toast made her pause. Steve wasn’t really surprised, Hopper didn’t seem like the kind of guy who knew how to cook french toast. 

“Eat up, it’s good. Though if you don’t like it, I can probably cook you something else.” Steve offered, cutting a bit of his toast off and getting a bit of egg and bacon onto his fork as well, taking a bite.

Eleven watched curiously before hesitantly cutting a small bit of the toast and following his example. He knew the second she decided she liked it due to the almost comical way her eyes widened and she hurried to get another bite. 

Steve laughed. “Yeah, it’s good right? If you still want more, I might be able to make you some with what’s leftover. Might have to persuade Hopper to give you some of his, though.” 

“It’s very good.” Eleven smiled.

“Not as good as Eggos though?” Steve smirked.

Eleven paused to deliberate. “Almost.”

“I’ll take it.” He cheered, finishing off his plate. “You want more?”

She agreed, and Steve managed to make a couple more slices of french toast but by the end of it, Hopper would  _ really _ need to go out and get more eggs and bread. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind too much about the fact that he basically emptied them out of basic foodstuffs. 

They were starting to clean up their mess when Hopper emerged from his room. “Huh, didn’t know you could cook kid.” 

Steve shrugged. “I’m decent enough. Picked up a few things, my parents don’t like cooking breakfast so it’s either cereal or make my own. Cereal got boring after a while.” 

Decent enough lie, 6/10. No one likes making breakfast. Steve only did it because of basketball practise falling sometimes in the mornings and would make his head spin if he didn’t eat breakfasts. He was actually a pretty good cook, if only because he had to cook for himself everyday, and used to cook for Tommy H and Carol after parties when they stayed over. Plus watching cooking shows entertained him when the house was too quiet and there was nothing to do. 

Hopper dug in and thanked Steve for the food, in return he reluctantly told him about the lack of eggs and bread. But it was good, Hopper had apparently been meaning to get groceries soon since he was away for so long. Afterwards, Eleven invited Steve to watch some TV with her. 

He couldn’t watch more than thirty minutes of TV at a time though, and told her as such. She didn’t mind, and apparently it was more relaxing than he thought it would be considering he nodded off only ten minutes into it. 

 

* * *

 

 

He vaguely woke up to hear a hushed conversation between Eleven and Hopper. 

“Steve’s going to stay with us for a few days. Will that be alright with you?” Hopper sighed, presumably leaning against the wall from the location of his voice. “Someone needs to watch over him, with his concussion and all.” 

“Con...cussion?” 

“Yeah, it means that his brain’s a little bit bruised. He’s got things like a nasty headache and has trouble focusing on things for too long.”

“He’ll be alright, won’t he?”

“Eventually yeah, with enough rest and us taking care of him, he’ll be back to normal in a few days. He doesn’t have to stay here if you’re not comfortable though.” 

“He protected my friends. He can stay.” 

“I might have to leave you alone with him for a few hours while I go convince Flo to let me take a few days off and get some more groceries though.”

“Go. We’ll be fine.” 

 

* * *

 

 

Steve didn’t know how the conversation ended after that, only that he jerked awake sometime later to the sound of Eggos popping from the toaster. He managed to turn his head on the couch to see Eleven putting a fresh batch on a plate. 

“Eggos?” She offered. 

Steve’s stomach churned if he was being honest. He wasn’t all that interested in food, but he knew that if he was going to take his pain meds that he was overdue for, he needed something in his stomach. He accepted and made his way over to little table wincing ever so slightly, grabbing the bag of meds from the kitchen counter on his way. 

Eleven set a plate of Eggos in front of him, and waited for him to dig in. He thanked her and wondered how he could go about getting to know a  _ little _ more about what happened to her without stepping on any verbal landmines. 

“Do you think...and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to but— Can I ask a few questions about, y’know, the whole lab thing?” Steve asked hesitantly as they ate, quickly looking up to see her expression. She seemed cautious but not guarded. Good sign. “It’s just, I know a couple of details from Nancy from last year, but it seemed sort of wrong not to ask you about it.” 

Eleven considered this, her expression more serious than Steve had seen since she first arrived at the Byers’ house. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

Steve cleared his throat. “My first question is how long were you there for? It...couldn’t have been easy.”

“My whole life.” 

Steve’s gaze snapped back up at her, somewhat thankful that Eleven was looking away and didn’t see his reaction. Her...her whole life. That would mean she was in the labs at the same time that he was. That would mean that when he and his siblings broke out, they left her behind. That would mean that even though Seven had sparsely interacted with his siblings growing up, they purposely isolated Eleven from all of them. 

His throat was clogged with emotion and his chest tight with the new knowledge. 

_ Her whole life. _

“What—” He stopped to clear his throat, trying to return his voice back to normal. He almost looked away when Eleven’s gaze turned back to him curiously. “What about the other kids, y’know. The numbers before you. Did you ever meet any of them…?” 

“I...remember meeting one. When I was small. Eight, but she prefers to go by Kali. I met her a few days ago.” Eleven smiled then. 

_ Eight _ . She’s fine. She’s alive. She’s still free. Oh  _ god _ did Steve want to interrogate Eleven about Ei— Kali until he knew every single little detail, but he knew he couldn’t. Not yet at least. That could wait until he told Eleven about Seven. He was fine just knowing that she was alive and safe, it had been so much more than he was expecting. 

“Do you mind going by Eleven, by the way?” Steve asked after a long few minutes, realising that maybe she didn’t want to go by Eleven all the time. “I don’t know if anyone’s actually asked you that.”

Eleven smiled. “I like El. Mike gave it to me. Mama named me Jane though, I’m...not sure if I like that. But I like El.” 

“Okay then, El.” Steve smiled at her. “I think that about does it for my major questions anyway. Thanks for telling me. To make it fair, ask any questions you like to me and I’ll answer you as best I can.”

The rest of lunch passed with small questions being passed between the two of them. El wanted to know what school was like, to which Steve was happy to answer. He told her all about the different classes, what an average school day would be like, and the different clubs that they offered. 

She’d heard a few things here and there from Hopper evidently, but Steve told her things in more depth. The inner workings of the different clubs to which Steve guessed that Hopper hadn’t participated in any. 

“Eventually you’ll be able to find out for yourself, I hope.” Steve concluded after explaining how the basketball club worked and told her how he guessed the other clubs worked too. “I’m not sure what the plan is, but hopefully you will.”

El’s mood dropped at the mention. “Hopper says soon. But he said soon three hundred and twenty days ago.” 

Steve frowned slightly. He...didn’t quite like that. The idea of Eleven staying trapped and confined for so long. No wonder she went stir crazy and disobeyed, if Steve had to be trapped like that he wasn’t sure if he could cope. Especially if he went from escaping the lab to confined to the cabin. 

“Well, now that your friends all know you’re safe maybe Hopper’ll let them visit. Maybe I’ll try and convince him that I can babysit every now and then so I can hang out with you. I bet it’s lonely up here.”

“Babysit?” She blinked. 

“Oh, it means when a young person is looked after by an older person whose not their parents. Like Hopper doesn’t like leaving you on your own, right?” She nodded. “So I can come over and keep you company instead. That’s just if you want to though.” 

“I would like that.” 

 

* * *

 

 

When Hopper came in an hour later, he apologised for taking so long. Apparently Flo needed an in depth explanation as to why he hadn’t shown up to work for a week. He hadn’t managed to convince her to take another day off, so it would be back to work for Hopper tomorrow. 

He did however get groceries, and a range of ingredients that if Steve wanted to push himself he could probably whip up a good dinner for the three of them. But maybe he’d see what Hopper would make them, if it was sad enough then he’d probably have to take over. 

After El told Hopper that it was fine leaving them on their own, Steve reassured him that he didn’t mind babysitting El and took the opportunity to offer it whenever he needed. 

“Sure kid, might take you up on that sometime. But it’s really El babysitting you tomorrow what with your concussion.” Hopper smirked at him with great amusement. 

Steve rolled his eyes and tried to fight off a yawn that he knew would prove Hopper right. He knew he should probably protest it, but honestly he didn’t care about semantics when his head was pounding with a migraine. 

“Oh, and update on that Billy kid’s arrest.” Hopper started, as Steve whipped his head up to listen. Oh yeah, Steve had kind of forgotten that Billy had actually gotten arrested. 

“His trial’s set for next week, and Flo told me that the Sinclairs are hoping to also press charges for Billy trying to attack Lucas. You might need to testify in court, but other than that it looks like he’ll probably be facing a month in jail, maybe more.”

Steve nodded, sitting back slightly to process the information. He wasn’t exactly surprised to hear the Sinclairs were going to press charges, Steve didn’t know much about Lucas’s parents but they seemed to be well respected and weren’t the type to take things lying down. Especially not after hearing their son had been targeted. 

While Steve felt like there was more the story, he hoped that actually receiving consequences for his actions would help Billy in the long run.

Steve went back to the solitaire game that he was showing El how to play. He figured that it would probably be good for when she wanted something new to do on her own, it was also one of the few things that didn’t hurt his head too much when he concentrated on it. 

The day passed peacefully. Steve often taking naps without realising it if he stayed sat in one position for too long. It was nice, just listening to Hopper and El existing around him, having conversations with each other and involving him whenever they noticed he was awake and able to contribute. 

He couldn’t help but wonder if this was what it was like to have a family. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [[poll for the direction of this fic]](https://www.strawpoll.me/18424087)
> 
> and there we are!! lil bit of el, steve and hopper bonding. no powers just yet, but be patient i have them figured out and will probably be whipping them out next chapter regardless of what y'all choose. i'll update this chapter to let you know any news but hopefully if we can figure this out p fast then you guys won't have to wait as long as you did for this chapter like yikes.
> 
> oh yeah, last chapter i sort of promised you guys some joyce/hopper but i don't think that'll actually be a thing. season 3 jopper was written so badly that it sort of killed my enthusiasm for it, and considering i'm aromantic and have zero romantic experience i don't think i'm good at writing my own version of it. and while we're on the shipping note, all mileven shipping will be very lowkey like hand holding, cuddling and spending time w each other. if you want smooching and making out then go watch canon or find another fic. and i'm also not a huge fan of lucas/max so if there's actually going to be any of it going forwards, it'll be on the same level of mileven. lumax was written decently in season 3 so i guess i'd keep it the same if i did that.
> 
> um, i think that's everything i wanted to address. i'll update this section if i think of anything else. but yeah!! thanks for reading!! let me know what you think!!

**Author's Note:**

> [come talk to me on tumblr](https://anonymouseling.tumblr.com)


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